Bushido Drabbles
by ScarletCougar
Summary: ATLA Drabbles based off the Bushido Virtues also known as the Code of the Samurai .
1. Chapter 1: First Virtue: Benevolence

_Benevolence – Compassion - Jin_

Through intense training the Samurai becomes quick and strong. You are not as other people. You develop a power that must be used for the good of all. You have compassion. You help the people at every opportunity. If an opportunity does not arise go out of your way to find one.


	2. Chapter 2: Zuko & Benevolence

The woman stood alone on the uneven path. Here tears making muddy trails on her face. "Please. You have to help." Zuko was just riding out intent on moving on before he became too attached to a family who would hate him if they knew who he was. "He's just a boy." Her face fell into her calloused hands and her shoulders shook.

Iroh's words echoed in his mind from a lesson on his early journeys, back in the first year of his exile. "One of the great Jin's is compassion, Zuko. It is a virtue. When you have the power to act, to help other people, you do so at every opportunity." He had only yelled at his uncle then about the foolishness of that virtue and how it hindered his crusade for the avatar.

Now, that he has depended on the compassion of others, did he understand. They had the power to help him and so they just did. They didn't have to help him. However, they shared their meager food and limited shelter. They struggled despite the loss of a son to the front lines, to the loss of a father seeking that son, and now to their youngest son of eight year.

Zuko walked his mount up to the weeping woman. "I will get your son back." What he didn't say was _I will get you son back because I can. Earth Kingdom thugs are no match for a skilled firebender, military trained, prince of the Fire nation. I will get your son back because I can._


	3. Chapter 3: Katara & Benevolence

_She stood from the water's edge looking amazed at her hands. They were burned just a minute ago. Now they were healed. An older man with wild grey hair and scars gashed across his face spoke softly, "You have a power that must be used for the good of all. You are not like other people. You can help them, and must at every opportunity."_

She wondered if that extended to Zuko as he stood before her surrounded by green crystals. He too lost his mother. He too was scarred, by his own father no less. _I am not like other people. This is the lesson of benevolence. To care… because I can. To help… because I am needed. To act… because I can._

She lifted the small vial of water from around her neck. It contained the spirit water from the sacred pool in the north. Katara gazed into Zuko's face, examined his features for several long breaths. This is the enemy? He closed his eyes and surrendered to her. She raised a compassionate hand and gently touched his scar.


	4. Chapter 4: Second Virtue: Truth

_Truth – Complete Sincerity - Makoto_

When a Samurai has said they will perform an action, it is as good as done. Nothing will stop you from completing what you have said you will do. You do not have to "give your word." You do not have to "promise." Speaking and doing are the same action. Your word is your life. One is only as good as the other. Live your word.


	5. Chapter 5: Iroh & Truth

"_Iroh, please… take care of my son."_

"_As though Zuko were my very own, Ursa. I will always be there for him." Iroh didn't need to promise really. He spoke the truth of his intent, one that he would live by. For, s__peaking and doing are the same action. Your word is your life. One is only as good as the other. Live your word. Iroh always did._

Out in the desert on a rocky outcrop, Iroh sat alone with a small fire. Toph sat with him. Both alone with tea. She grumbled, "People see me and think I'm weak. They want to take care of me. But I can take care of myself by myself."

"You sound like my nephew," Iroh sighed sadly. "Always thinking you need to do things on your own without anyone's support. There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you. Not that I love you; I just met you."

Toph laughed at the little ending joke. It made Iroh likable and so very human., "So, where is your nephew"

Iroh looked out across the desert. "I've been tracking him, actually."

"Is he lost?" she asked curiously

Iroh frowned with concern, "Yes, a little bit. His life has recently changed and he's going through very difficult times. He is trying to figure out who he is and he went away."

"So… now you're following him," she surmised.

Iroh nodded, "I know he doesn't want me around right now, but, if he needs me, I'll be there." He said he would. He promised someone very dear. He lived by those words. Zuko was as much son to him now as his own, now deceased, LuTen. "I will always be there for him." It was a simple truth of the heart.

If you could not live by your word, you did not give it. If you gave your word, you lived by it no matter the consequences, even if they dragged you to the farthest reaches of the world seeking the impossible and landing you into the deepest of enemy territories to struggle in near starvation and destitution, tracking a lost teen into the very desert.


	6. Chapter 6: Zuko & Truth

Her water whips lashed around to strike the ground near the scarred prince as his fire whips snapped at hers meeting in a shower of steam and sparks. He had intercepted Katara's battle with Azula.

Katara yelled, "I thought you changed!"

"I have changed," Zuko yelled the truth back her.

If only she was not blinded to what he was doing, that he was saving her life. Azula needed only electrify the water around Katara and the waterbender would be dead.

_I have changed. Please… believe me. I need someone to believe me. It is not a lie. It's the truth… it's my life. I have changed…_

Azula's final strike crushed any hope he had to trying to convey that truth.

Azula sat upon the Eath Kingdom throne smugly. She leaned over to her brother, Zuko and casually spoke, "Today, you restored your own honor."

_Azula always lies._


	7. Chapter 7: Third Virtue: Heroic Courage

_Heroic Courage - Yu_

Rise up above the masses of people who are afraid to act. Hiding like a turtle in a shell is not living at all. A Samurai must have heroic courage. It is absolutely risky. It is dangerous. It is living life completely, fully, and wonderfully. Heroic courage is not blind. It is intelligent and strong. It is not being fearless. Fear exists and you can feel afraid. It is acting despite fear, acting because you must.


	8. Chapter 8: Iroh's Heroic Courage

Zuko stood shaken, caught, unable to prove his will and heart had changed. He tried to distract, tried to stand beside his sister till the avatar could find a way to defeat her. If he showed Azula he thought that avatar was right, that he sided with the avatar, then Azula would never reveal the truth of their father's plans. And yet a small scrap of hope was there that maybe, somehow, if he captured the avatar and brought him before his father, that his father would then love him.

But Azula betrayed him. Causing him to betray Katara and the avatar… and his uncle. He found he lacked the courage to act, too stunned by his sister's actions as she shot lightening from her fingers to strike down the avatar, striking him in the back without honor. He stepped forward, wanting to help. But Azula stepped with him.

The avatar had fallen, seemingly death, and along with him all hope for the world. Katara caught him with a rush of waterbending. She glared her final feelings of betrayal at Zuko. He had nothing to say, no way now of convincing her. No courage left.

In the face of no courage and no hope, Zuka witnessed the most heroic of courage from the most unlikely of people. Iroh blasted fire at Azula and Zuko to warn them back. It was risky. It could, would mean his uncle's death. It was dangerous. There was fear and anger and determination in Iroh's eyes. "Get him out of here!" his uncle yelled back at Katara. "I will hold them off as long as I can." They being the Dai Li that Azula and manipulated under her control. Despite fear, despite immanent capture or death, Iroh would act. Act because he must.

If Zuko ever needed a lesson or an example of true heroic courage, he witnessed it now in his uncle. One man fought many till the avatar was away and free. Zuko wondered if he would ever have that kind of courage in his life to stand for what was right.


	9. Chapter 9: Mai Defies Azula

Amber eyes burned dangerously in her direction. Betrayal, fury, even hatred. They were best friends, in a way. But Mai, as selfish as she could be, had watched Zuko risk his very life for what he believed in. Not just once, but many times now, against his own sister and father, against ridiculous odds, against the years of unjust exile. His father had declared that he had no honor, but she thought otherwise. He acted with greater honor than anyone she ever knew, greater courage to defy odds that were so much bigger than he was. Yet here, her dark eyes dared not shift from the amber burn of her former best friends, Zuko's sister Azula.

To defy Azula, was to endure terrible and cruel torment. Azula embodied dangerous. AT the demands about her betrayal as the gondola reached safety and Zuko and his new allies escaped safely, Mai found courage she had not really known she had. "I love Zuko more than I fear you."

Heroic courage does not mean not being afraid or facing an army alone. It is acting in spite of fear because you must, even if it is against your own best friend. And Mai accepted the consequences, whatever they would be.


End file.
